Is Figure Skating "Morosoved" Out?

After watching Campbell's and now Skate America, I have to ask, has Morosov's choreography reached the over-saturation point?

It seems just about every elite skater has now implemented his choreography and, for me, at least, a large chunk of the uniqueness in style skaters used to exhibit has disappeared or has been greatly diminished.

I'm not trying to discount Morosov as a choreographer, but from reading numerous posts on different forums, programs are now similar, bordering on identical - from music cuts, general structure and flow of a program, and especially in footwork. The inundation of toe-pick use in footwork sequences has turned me completely off to it, when I used to love it.

I am glad that Sasha has removed the Morosov footwork from her Malaquena program - not only is the new sequence smoother and better suited with the music, the changes separate her choreography in this portion from what's become the current mainstream footwork rage.

Just curious - exactly how many singles skaters are currently using Morosov choreography? I haven't had enough coffee this morning to try and tally them up.

In my opinion NM is played out. His programs for Arakawa and Michelle are almost identical. I like them but I don't need to see the program done by 2 skaters.

I hope Michelle is watching to know that she needs to switch choreographers yet again at least for next year if she is skating. Last year was it for NM when it came to creative juices. I think the man is all tapped out. I would say the best constructed program he has this year is skated by Takeshi so far.

I believe is a trend, after Olys everyone was very impressed by Yagudin's footwork so they reach for the source and that was Nikolai, but it doesn't seem difficult to the judges view, I mean Takeshi program is choreograph by Morozov and his straight line footwork is considered level 1, so probably now coaches will see that Nikolai footwork won't get their skaters that many points.

I don't know about figure skating but I know I'm already tired of the whole everyone get Morosov to choreograph a program thing... booooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiii iiiiiinnnnnnnnnnngggggggggg

It's all Yags' fault! :D He skated those Morozov choreographies with too much brilliance and enthusiasm. After that it was burned in almost every ordinary skater's brain - "Wow! Now I'm engaging Morozov and I'll skate like that as well." Unfortunately they all forgot one thing: M. still doesn't have enough experience and is not versatile enough to give every skater a program that really suit(s) her/him/them. And, even worse!, not everyone is a Yagudin! :D

Another question: Will Morozov cede some of his coaching fees to Yags? After all he only has to thank him for the numerous students he has now ....

Good topic, Skatcynic - NM for me, does some nice straightline footwork, and as others mentioned, it is showy. It was certainly Yagudin's crowd pleaser. NM became the flavor of the month and MK went directly to him. She reinforced the 'showy' footwork and it was indeed a crowd pleaser in DC Worlds.

But, I don't see it as all that difficult. I don't think footwork is meant to be difficult. It is to be part of creative choreography, and I agree NM's seems to be waring thin. And I can't help thinking of past Kurt Browning's footwork which also got the crowds going.

Is Morozov used too much? Yes, I think its getting to the point where the people who aren't coached by him (Joubert, Honda, ect) maybe should lay off and maybe experiment a little more with other types of choreography. Is his choreography boring, repetitive, un-original? No. Not at all really. While a lot of his popularity came from Yagudin's sucess, I don't think any of his recent work looks too much alike or is too similar to Alexei's programs. I've seen him work before in CT and he really doesn't look like hes trying to use the same things over again, its more like hes trying to fit things in with the music. When I was watching him work with Lang and Tchernyshev, it almost looked like he really knew what he wanted to be done but couldn't seem to really convey it or teach it to L&T. Overall, I've been really impressed by him and think the programs he's done are great.
Laura

The worst Morozov choreography has got to AP McDonaugh's straightline footwork in this year's Swan Lake. (I just downloaded and watched the Campbell's clip from TAHbKA's site.) If there is any footwork that is unsuited to the big, bold legato music of the end of Swan Lake, it is stopping the momentum in the middle of the phrase to jump on the toe picks. Horrific, IMO.

I think NM is a good coach and choreographer. He has had a bit too much success due to his work with Yags. I believe, however, that he is capable of a lot more. Also, I hope he continues as a coach as well as a choreographer, especially with dance. I hope he can overcome this sudden success to go back to doing good solid original choreography.

NM does seem to be everywhere at once, but like all trends, this one will no doubt burn out too, at least in terms of "Everybody Do the Morosov!" Every choreographer I've known who was worth his/her feet has gone through periods of feast and famine. It's feast time for Morosov now. If he wants to have staying power, he'll have his own standards of choreographic quality, even if he doesn't always achieve them. He'll also have to take risks, which means he'll fall flat on his face sometimes. Hopefully next season the top skaters will turn to a wider variety of choreographers. There's some great talent out there.

LOL, Germanice about NM giving Yagudin "royalties" for his choreography. Just think, all this from a few seconds of footwork in Yags's "Winter" SP. Ain't life fair!

BTW, I've got nothing against NM and like much of his work. I think he's young and found out the hard way that the amount of creative work you think you can do well and the amount you can actually do are two different things. Every creative person learns that sooner or later.
Rgirl